Your rants here.

fat daddy

imatfaal wrote:

Sheared a bolt - and I was using the torque wrench. Now gotta get a headless bolt out of my seat post clamp ...

ooooh headless .. think of the weight saving

timothyw

Married a couple of years ago, somewhat on the cheap and under great time pressure - the wife was pregnant and we wanted to get it done before she really started to show, so planned the whole thing in 6 weeks.

We had the scan a couple of weeks before the big day and so I was able to announce the pregnancy as part of my Groom's speech. I was able to end my speech with the line "So, if nothing else today, we have at least avoided a bastard. Speaking of bastards, over to my best man...."

Honestly, it was the best day of my life, and I would be happy if we had spent double what we actually did, so don't get too hung up on what things cost if it is something the two of you really want.

Most important for us was that our friends and family could join us, and we found a constitutional club in my home town that was very near the train station - and trains back into London ran until late into the night. Don't hold it in the middle of nowhere if you can avoid it. If people have little choice but to drive then they aren't going to have the best time.

Secondly, children were very welcome, and as new parents this really is something that we perhaps didn't fully appreciate until now (when we've had to attend a few weddings and kids haven't been invited) - you put your friends in an uncomfortable position when you exclude their children. Best case is that they have accomodating relatives who will look after the kids while they are off at the wedding, equally likely is that they're shelling out for childcare or one of them is having to stay at home to look after the kid(s), which sucks. And just because kids are welcome, doesn't mean we feel obliged to bring them....

None of the other stuff really matters IMHO

imatfaal

fat daddy wrote:

imatfaal wrote:

Sheared a bolt - and I was using the torque wrench. Now gotta get a headless bolt out of my seat post clamp ...

ooooh headless .. think of the weight saving

Saw the quick response and I thought - Excellent; someone has some protips to help.

hantstooflat

Shortly after getting engaged we had the first proper discussion re the wedding about the guest list. It sits close to 50 at the moment but we are maybe expecting that to creep to 60. We've both agreed that to make the guest list we have had to have met this person, but expect some grumbles from families about why "so and so" wasn't invited (hence some drift upwards expected).

We've bought a house together which is an ongoing project so the budget is limited but we have everything we could dream of so no need for a wedding that will put us in debt. Similarly because we have our house if people are kind enough to want to offer us a gift we've decided to ask for money towards a trip/honeymoon as this may be our last chance as we want to start a family when we are married.

jds_1981

imatfaal wrote:

fat daddy wrote:

imatfaal wrote:

Sheared a bolt - and I was using the torque wrench. Now gotta get a headless bolt out of my seat post clamp ...

ooooh headless .. think of the weight saving

Saw the quick response and I thought - Excellent; someone has some protips to help.

I did something similar with a crank. Turned it the wrench I'd used only once to check it was working had stopped working.
Pro tip, I got mine out by loosening and tightening another bolt repeatedly from the other side. This worked it out quite quickly.

rower63

jds_1981 wrote:

... crank ... wrench ... Pro tip ...

thank God, for a moment I though we'd wormholed off to mumsnet

timothyw

Grr, dickhead close passing me 100m before I arrived at work. Probably for the best he escaped down a side road as me yanking his door open and punching him probably wouldn't have gone down so well.

Wheelspinner

Rick Chasey wrote:

Assuming you'r reasonable about venues etc, the biggest determinant of the price of a wedding is the number of guests.

Luckily, there are few people in the world who can put up with me (I wonder why I have so many posts on here...), so mine next month won't be all that much.

And don't forget to take the honeymoon into account. After all, that'll last a bit longer...

Best wishes!

LiveGiantlyAgain

pedestrians crossing the road when its green for cyclists and cars....

now I'm going to have to get my rear wheel trued due to a non-fault accident....

wolfsbane2k

Wildlife.
As much as I love riding through the rural areas rather than suffering the madness of the high streets, I really dont appreciate pulling the remainder of a skewered squirrel that decided to run 'through' my front wheel.
Rotating Aero spokes at 20mph don't keep you alive for long.

However, if your a pheasant, please aim for my back wheel rather than my chest, i'll gladly take you home for tea.

I think the squirrel got his tail caught as he tried to turn away, poor bugger.

awavey

elbowloh wrote:

I got married earlier this year and although the lovely wife said she didn't want a fancy wedding, when it came to the crunch we had 120 guests and it cost a bloody fortune!

Yes, totally get the OPs point about all the little things they itemise, down to the number of candles etc.

Be careful about booze, a lot of venues will only let you buy booze from them...or they tell you that you can bring your own wine, but it's a £15 corkage fee...

the corkage fee was the thing that always wound me up at weddings, so weve sourced and brought the wine, and you are charging us £15 just to open it, you are still charging who knows what for some pretend cheap champagne how does that work except for ripping people off, at least when one of my friends chose 4 casks of real ale & cider instead of wine it completely confused the venue theyd hired, as they hadnt a clue how to open them properly (keg lager only type place), so they dropped the fee completely

redvee

awavey wrote:

the corkage fee was the thing that always wound me up at weddings

A friend's brother signed his death warrant at the weekend and the hotel wanted £8 corkage per bottle or buy their wine for £25, he went with the BYO and corkage route as he works for Matthew Clark and they did him a good deal on the wine and might have had too many bottles as the private bar for the reception took hardly anything which went down well with the hotel and the wine that wasn't drunk they took home which they hotel had ideas on too.

slowbike

Mr Hovis Lorry driver going down Cocking Hill this morning ...

you're big and not clever - why overtake me when you can't see that it's clear ahead? You ended up pulling in on me - ok, not too bad - but I know you can't see that I'm clear behind ... I've had worse, but I still expect more from professional drivers - especially when the brand advertises with a boy on a bike!

awavey

knee warmers required in September as my knees really didn't appreciate the temps this morning at all, the autumnal equinox has really kicked in change in temps, seems like only a week ago it was stupidly hot,now the cycle paths are covered in leaves...winter is coming

xbnm

Mr Bus Driver there is no point pulling into the outside lane of 3 at the roundabout traffic lights to try and out accelerate a car and a cycle so you can cut across 2 lanes to pull into the bus stop where passengers are waiting. You were never likley to succeed but at least you admitted failure early and pulled in behind.

slowbike

top up tyre pressure this morning - front wheel valve breaks ... one flat tyre ... and I'm running late ..

fortunately - before having to resort to backup bike - I can swap the wheel with a spare - top up the air and away we go

forgot my lid though

reformedfatty

Not having a good run at the moment. 3 rants from yesterday and today

Yesterday heading home, approaching a mini roundabout on a downhill @ circa 25mph, minibus driver decides right of way isn't something he needs to worry about and pulls out. I skid to a stop a foot from his drivers door. What irked me more was he was that as he was looking at me after my emergency stop he just looked utterly bored, that kind of 'sigh this happens every day, I'm such a bad driver, oh well carry on, no need to apologise or acknowledge my error'.

Later in the commute onto a 'temporary road surface' (3 weeks so far) where they have scraped away the tarmac, despite tyres being at 100psi pinch flatted coming into it. Fair enough, spare tube out and fitted.. 300 metres later an old repair on the spare fails. Oh well, get out the puncture repair kit, only to find that the glue has long since turned into a solid yellow lump. 40 min push home in spd shoes.

This morning as I'm locking up the wife moves my fatbike and decides the best thing is not just to lean it against the corner of a brick wall, but to actually drag it against that corner, leaving a nice gouge the full length of the top tube. Well f***ing cheers, thanks for that.

corriebee1

Had my worst (possibly first) near death experience this morning when a stagecoach bus pulled across the road I. Front of me as I was travelling @ 25-26 mph. I managed to swerve round the front of the bus and hit the pavement on the other side of the junction. Thankfully nothing was waiting at the junction on the left. Ended up up quivering in a pile on the pavement. I got roundd him by an inch.

The road was completely empty but pedestrians everywhere. Loads of peopl shouting at the driver and checking I was ok. He got out and was initially massively apologetic. Then his self-presevation kicked in and he started on "its 20mph roundd here and you were going too fast. That's why I didn't see you". After a while he went to get back in his bus (full of passengers) and I went to look at the road signs nearby. I went to his bus and heard him explaining that I was over the 20mph speed limit. When I invited him to come and view the 30moh limit sign a mere 15 yards from his parked bus he declined. "If you say so".

I'm still shaking in the office now and when I phoned Stagecoach to leave a message my voice sounded like I was going to cry! Shock is a nasty thing and after 4 years of commuting I'm rather glad this is my first time!

rick_chasey

My helmet broke last week. The band that holds my helmet in has snapped. Tried supergluing it together but it didn't work.

Now my bike lock of 13 years is broken - one of the pins in the lock has been bent round so the key won't go in. It was on the 'keep your bike lock here' bracket in the secured underground car park in my office.

Gargh.

MrSweary

reformedfatty wrote:

I'm locking up the wife

There is your solution.

Only a Ginger

18 month suspended sentance. Abysmal.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/louise-wright-s-mum-speaks-out-as-lorry-driver-found-guilty/story-29752087-detail/story.html

Only a Ginger

corriebee1 wrote:

Had my worst (possibly first) near death experience this morning when a stagecoach bus pulled across the road I. Front of me as I was travelling @ 25-26 mph. I managed to swerve round the front of the bus and hit the pavement on the other side of the junction. Thankfully nothing was waiting at the junction on the left. Ended up up quivering in a pile on the pavement. I got roundd him by an inch.

The road was completely empty but pedestrians everywhere. Loads of peopl shouting at the driver and checking I was ok. He got out and was initially massively apologetic. Then his self-presevation kicked in and he started on "its 20mph roundd here and you were going too fast. That's why I didn't see you". After a while he went to get back in his bus (full of passengers) and I went to look at the road signs nearby. I went to his bus and heard him explaining that I was over the 20mph speed limit. When I invited him to come and view the 30moh limit sign a mere 15 yards from his parked bus he declined. "If you say so".

I'm still shaking in the office now and when I phoned Stagecoach to leave a message my voice sounded like I was going to cry! Shock is a nasty thing and after 4 years of commuting I'm rather glad this is my first time!

Glad you're OK (alive & uninjured, anyway).

I've had horrible experiences like this, really shakes you up...some may disagree but my advice, whilst the urge to get back on the bike for the commute home is tempting, don't.

Get a lift, get a bus (maybe not stagecoach though), get a taxi.

Take some time to relax, think of the finer things in life & enjoy a new commute another day.

veronese68

Riding up my road this evening and there's a black softroader stopped in the middle of the road with another one waiting behind it. I see them as soon as I turn into the road so I just coast up to pass, as I'm passing a small child runs out from behind the first one between the two at full tilt, I slam on the anchors and just miss him. He could only have been about 5 so I don't really blame him but the stupid selfish bint driving that's too lazy to park 30 yards away and let him out safely. I get home at the same time as my neighbour and as I'm telling him what just happened the ignorant fat trollop drives back past glaring at me.

slowbike

Ok - this isn't really a rant as such ... just a sorry state of affairs ..

I don't usually bother with other ppls fb posts - but I showed one picture to a colleague who is also a magistrate ..
the photo was of a motorcyclist with a jacket on saying "get off your 'uckin phone"
I got a distasteful look ... ok - fair enough with the language - but the message?
Oh no - his view is that it's surely ok on a motorway if it's just a quick call ....
really?!

What a KN0B ... and this is from a magistrate ... scant regard for the law of the land?!
Stark contrast to another magistrate I know (circles I move in eh?! ) - who ensures he abides by the letter of the law completely ...

asprilla

Slowbike wrote:

Ok - this isn't really a rant as such ... just a sorry state of affairs ..

I don't usually bother with other ppls fb posts - but I showed one picture to a colleague who is also a magistrate ..
the photo was of a motorcyclist with a jacket on saying "get off your 'uckin phone"
I got a distasteful look ... ok - fair enough with the language - but the message?
Oh no - his view is that it's surely ok on a motorway if it's just a quick call ....
really?!

What a KN0B ... and this is from a magistrate ... scant regard for the law of the land?!
Stark contrast to another magistrate I know (circles I move in eh?! ) - who ensures he abides by the letter of the law completely ...

My MIL leads the bench in one part of the country (mainly dealing in family court) and she completely agrees with the mobile phone law. She does, however, have 9 speeding points.

secretsam

There should be a new law: instant death for anyone talking, making calls or even breathing loudly on trains before 7AM

xbnm

Wasp decided to try flying into my mouth got the lips closed but not quite in time so ended with a wasp stuck between them requiring some hand intervention to remove resulting in multiple stings to the lip. Lip blew up to the size of an egg while drinking alcohol based pain killer and applying ice. Thought it would be too cold for the blighters up north now.

dinyull

XBNM wrote:

Wasp decided to try flying into my mouth got the lips closed but not quite in time so ended with a wasp stuck between them requiring some hand intervention to remove resulting in multiple stings to the lip. Lip blew up to the size of an egg while drinking alcohol based pain killer and applying ice. Thought it would be too cold for the blighters up north now.

Walked past what must have been a nest where there were hundreds of the buggers yesterday up here in the north-east.

bendertherobot

Overtakers. I don't mind being overtaken, actually that's not true, it bruises my ego. But I do mind if you can put any distance between us and you then shower me with road grime from your back wheel as a result.

itboffin

LiveGiantlyAgain wrote:

pedestrians crossing the road when its green for cyclists and cars....

now I'm going to have to get my rear wheel trued due to a non-fault accident....

I love that one they see us waiting for the red but it doesn't apply to them and they seem angry when we go on the green